Creating a random fractional number in F# - f#

Question

I was trying to create a random fractional number as follows:
type Fraction=
{
num: int
den: int
}
let makeRandomFraction i =
let n= fun i -> System.Random(i).Next(-50, 51)
let d= fun i -> System.Random(i*3).Next(-50, 51)
{num=n; den=d}
but I am getting an error:
error FS0001: This expression was expected to have type
'int'
but here has type
'int -> int'
Could you please explain the error and the correct way of doing the required.

Answer 1

The error is saying that you're passing a function (of type int -> int) where an int is expected. You can see this more clearly in something like:
let add a b = a + b
let inc x = x + 1
inc add
// ^^^
// This expression was expected to have type 'int' but has type 'int -> int -> int'
The solution here is just to take out the fun i -> parts. That's the (other) syntax for lambdas, but since your i variable is already in scope there's no need to create a function around it.

Answer 2

Out of curiosity, do you have any requirements on what range and distribution of fractions do you want your function to generate? The way the code is currently written - by composing two random numbers in a range -50 .. 50, you will get a distribution with most numbers being close to zero.
Here is a simple histogram built using the XPlot F# library:
open XPlot.GoogleCharts
type Fraction=
{ num: int
den: int }
let makeRandomFraction i =
let n = System.Random(i).Next(-50, 51)
let d = System.Random(i*3).Next(-50, 51)
{num=n; den=d}
[ for i in 0 .. 100000 -> let f = makeRandomFraction i in float f.num / float f.den ]
|> Seq.filter (System.Double.IsInfinity >> not)
|> Seq.countBy (fun f -> int f)
|> Chart.Column